-- Trace Adkins faces Penn Jillette in the season finale episode of “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” at 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC. The men each created ice cream flavors for Walgreens in last week’s episode and were charged with filming a commercial and organizing an event around the product. While that episode was taped months ago, the finale will be live. Donald Trump will crown a winner and award that person $250,000 for his charity.

LAS VEGAS - Around four hours into what was billed as a two-hour television taping, more than half the crowd was gone from the “ACM presents: Tim McGraw’s Superstar Summer Night” concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

But the group that was left was mighty, and McGraw was sure happy they stuck around until the end.

“We’ve played all over the world and had a lot of crowds,” the singer told the dwindling audience. “This has been a long night with a lot of double takes, and you guys have been one of the best crowds in a long time.”

The show was filmed out of order, with McGraw’s chunk of songs stationed at the end. The evening kicked off with a collaboration between McGraw and rapper Pitbull that got the crowd enthusiastically on its feet.

“He about got me dancing,” McGraw told the audience. “And you don’t want me dancing.”
The singer described the evening as his “personal playlist right on this stage” and told the crowd he had a lot of friends there and to expect unexpected collaborations.

McGraw sang “Mexicoma” and during a set change – one of many that lead to the extended timeframe of the taping – he did an a cappella version of George Strait’s “You Look So Good in Love.”

A Ne-Yo/McGraw collaboration was up next – and had to be repeated on stage. In fact, nearly every performance of the night took place twice.

McGraw's current single was at the beginning of the evening with “Highway Don’t Care,” his song featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban underway early.

“That’s Keith, I’m Taylor,” Swift introduced from the stage. It was joke – but the crowd had serious adoration for Urban before he even opened his mouth. He walked down the catwalk that shot off the stage while playing the solo for “Highway Don’t Care” and earned some of the biggest applause of the evening.

McGraw filmed the finale jam next – a collaboration on “Born on the Bayou” that included Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, McGraw, Urban, and John Fogerty. The men took turns singing verses and Urban and Fogerty traded guitar licks. At the end of the song, Urban fell to his knees in appreciation of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer.

Like they did during Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards, The Band Perry delivered a performance of their current single “Done” that left the audience abuzz. Members didn’t eject from the stage this time, but it was fist-pumping, jumping-up-and-down, rocking country music.

Urban returned to the stage to play his hit “Long Hot Summer,” and Lady Antebellum introduced fans to new song “Goodbye Town” from their upcoming album “Golden.” Dierks Bentley also performed his new song “Summer on Fire” as did Aldean who played current single “1994” and Bryan who belted out “Crash My Party” to a standing ovation.Florida Georgia Line brought out Nelly for a version of their hit “Cruise,” also an audience favorite. Before they took the stage, member Brian Kelley said he thought that performing on McGraw’s television special “will be one of those nights we look back on and remember forever.”

"It's extremely humbling that Tim asked us to be a part of his Superstar Summer Night,” he said. “We've been fans of Tim since we were kids and couldn't be more excited. In our eyes, Tim is country music and someone we look up to.”

Brantley Gilbert followed, and by this time in the event – around the four hour mark -- organizers came over the loud speakers to encourage people to not leave the arena.

Faith Hill came out and played “Piece of my Heart” and nailed it on the first run through.
“How in the (heck) am I supposed to perform after that,” McGraw quipped. “I get to take that home tonight.”

McGraw closed the show with “Something Like That” and “Two Lanes of Freedom,” the title track from his new album.

Fans can catch the edited version of “ACM presents: Tim McGraw’s Superstar Summer Night” 8 p.m. May 19 on CBS.

Proceeds from ticket sales to the concert will go to benefit Lifting Lives, the ACM’s charitable arm.

LAS VEGAS - Not much brings country stars together like an awards show – and Tim McGraw.

Tonight, following Sunday’s ACM Awards, many of the same performers are preparing to get back on the stage at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena for a special television taping of “ACM Presents: Tim McGraw’s Superstar Summer Night.”

Nashville was among the cities that spent a summer night with Tim McGraw last year when his co-headlining tour with Kenny Chesney rolled through town. This summer, the country star is taking the celebration to a national television audience with a concert special set to air on CBS later this year.

"ACM PRESENTS: Tim McGraw’s Superstar Summer Night" will be taped at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Mon., April 8, and Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift and Ne-Yo are the first artists to be added to its star-studded roster.

After his performance on Wednesday night's "Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!" at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, R&B star Ne-Yo was getting ready to head to New York City to be the musical guest on this week's "Saturday Night Live." But Music City might be seeing more of "Let Me Love You" singer soon enough.

“I love it here," he told reporters backstage at Wednesday's concert. "I might have to go look at some property later.”

That might just be lip service, but Ne-Yo had no shortage of nice things to say about Nashville and its citizens, particularly Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, who showed him some southern hospitality when Ne-Yo came to town to write songs with the country couple.

"(I was) expecting to go to a studio, and wound up at the house, playing with the kids, and Faith cooked chicken," he recalled. "It was just open arms, you know what I mean? I was not expecting that. It just speaks to what Nashville is and the people that live here. It was a fantastic experience."

Tim and Faith aren't the only Nashville stars that have impressed Ne-Yo: he told reporters that Taylor Swift's hip-hop beatboxing during the concert "sounded authentic."

"Taylor, if you ever want to get your hip-hop on, holler at your boy," he said.

As Dean and leaders in the economic development and tourism industries see it, the nationally televised program -- held outside Los Angeles for the first time since its inception five years ago – provides validation that Nashville is an all-inclusive music city.

It’s an image officials are eager to put into the psyche of people across the country as they work to shed the long-held perception that Nashville is only open to country music.

Getting that message out, Dean and others believe, is crucial to efforts to boosting everything from tourism to businesses investment in Nashville. Nearly 10 million people watched last year’s nominations concert special on CBS, a 12 percent improvement from 2010.

“What I think it really does for somebody who is not familiar with Nashville, or has an image of Nashville that does not comport with reality, is that it helps them to see what Nashville really is,” Dean said. “It spreads the word in a way we couldn’t on our own.”

It will fly by in an hour when it’s broadcast live on CBS this Wednesday, but “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!” has come a long way to make its Music City debut — and there’s still plenty of work to be done before it airs.

Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the nominations concert as well as the Grammy Awards, estimates that between 200 and 250 people will work on the concert, between the production team, talent and arena staff. Set-up at the arena began last week, and much of the team arrived in Nashville over the weekend to start ensuring that eight best-selling acts will have time to perform for a live TV audience.

A few years ago, announcing the nominees wasn’t nearly this complicated — or exciting. The Recording Academy would traditionally reveal the nominees at an early-morning press conference. In 2008, Ehrlich and Recording Academy president Neil Portnow were ready for a change.

“It was my feeling, and Neil shared that feeling, that the announcement of the Grammys was an event on its own,” Ehrlich said. “And it deserved more than just 60 media people in a room with some cameras.”